A drug rehabilitation worker was caught with 70 bags of crack and heroin after relapsing and dealing in Macclesfield to avoid his clients.

Matthew Flanagan, 41, was stopped by police outside a house on Grimshaw Lane in Bollington after officers hid in neighbouring gardens to catch him. He ran off but was apprehended and found with a package of heroin and crack clenched in his hand, as well as more wraps between his buttocks.

The street value was £710, Chester Crown Court was told.

Flanagan, of Low Street, Keighley, Bradford, was dealing to fund his own drug habit. He had relapsed after being clean for four years and working in drug rehabilitation.

He developed a £200 a day habit and decided to deal drugs in Macclesfield so he would not see people who knew him as a drug worker.

The judge, Recorder Jeremy Lasker, considered suspending his prison sentence but decided Flanagan must go to prison immediately because he had opportunities to get help for his drug taking but didn’t take them. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Anna Pope, prosecuting, said Flanagan was apprehended around 6am on March 21 outside the house of one of Flanagan’s ‘associates’ on Grimshaw Lane.

Defending, Shirley Kelly said Flanagan went to Claver Hall drug rehabilitation centre and started volunteering himself.

She said: “He did so well he was asked to be a mentor. He’s someone who has never had a proper job but was taken on as a trainee drug worker.

“He had a long road to recovery and was doing incredibly well but was off work with ill health and went back to drugs.

“He was so embarrassed that he went to Macclesfield where he isn’t known as a drug worker.”

Recorder Lasker said: “You have first hand experience of the misery drugs cause. It’s not appropriate to give you a suspended sentence because you have had access to all sorts of people who could have helped you.”